“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Ruburt, in those terms, started from scratch as a member of your society who had finally thrown aside, as you had, the current framework of belief. For some time he was simply between belief systems, discarding some entirely, accepting portions of others; but he was mainly a pioneer, and this while carrying largely unknowingly and invisibly the one basic belief of society that you cannot trust the self.

[...] Now you also have shared that belief strongly enough in any case so that your joint beliefs merged. His symptoms represent for him the one point of vacuum, comparatively speaking, where the acceleration that has otherwise occurred has not as yet clearly penetrated; and jointly they represent the area in which your combined beliefs have not caught up to your knowledge.

While that largely invisible—emotionally invisible—belief is carried, then anything the self does must be scrutinized, put to the test, while in the meantime beliefs that have sustained others are suspended.

[...] The physical financial abundance, for example, automatically and easily was accepted despite beliefs in the past to the contrary—and even in spite of your own negative beliefs in that regard.

I repeat: Your ideas and beliefs form the structure of your experience. Your beliefs and the reasons for them can be found in your conscious mind. If you accept the idea that the reasons for your behavior are forever buried in the past of this life, or any other, then you will not be able to alter your experience until you change that belief. [...]

[...] Listening to voices both within and without, the conscious mind is able to form beliefs that are in league with the self’s knowledge as received from material and nonmaterial sources. Then examination of beliefs takes its place along with other activities — naturally, easily, without effort. Once the conscious mind has accepted a collection of conflicting beliefs, however, a definite attempt is necessary to sort these out.

Remember, even false beliefs will seem to be justified in terms of physical data, since your experience in the outside world is the materialization of those beliefs. So you must work with the raw material of your ideas, even while your sense data may tell you that a given belief is obviously a truth. [...]

[...] The mistaken belief is one that does not fit the basic conditions of your inner being. So if you believe that you are at the mercy of physical events, you entertain a false belief. If you feel that your present experience was set in circumstances beyond your control, you entertain a false belief.

[...] If the intellect believes that the world (pause) is a threat to existence, then that belief will alter its intents, of course, and therefore the body’s activities. The beliefs of the intellect operate then as powerful suggestions, particularly when the intellect identifies with those beliefs, so that there is little distance between the intellect and the beliefs that it holds as true.

(Pause in an intent delivery.) I am doing my best to explain the very practical aspects of the intellect’s beliefs, and their strength in drawing experience to you. [...] (Pause.) Your own relationship, your private beliefs about the sort of persons you wanted individually for mates, brought about incalculable actions that led finally to your meeting — yet it all happened “quite naturally,” of course. Your beliefs bring you into correspondence with the elements likely to lead to their affirmation. [...] They elicit from other people behavior that is in keeping with those beliefs.

Your own attitudes, for example — and beliefs — about foreigners, Prentice-Hall, people’s stupidity and lack of integrity, put you in correspondence with those same beliefs on the part of others, resulting in the translation fiasco.¹ An entirely different kind of behavior could have been elicited from those same people. [...] Those same people, for example, all have, as you do, beliefs in people’s trustworthiness, and so forth — but under those conditions, at that time, you each — or rather you all — were in correspondence at many levels. [...] They have helped many people, and that is because you were also in correspondence as far as many of your more positive beliefs are concerned, and those did outweigh the others.

[...] It is amazingly resilient, in that according to the belief structures of any given historical period, it can orient itself along the lines of those beliefs, using all of its reasoning abilities to bring such a world picture into focus, collecting data that agree, and rejecting what does not.

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. [...]

(Pause at 9:42.) That is why belief systems are so important in dealing with health and illness. Each of the systems uses paraphernalia — gestures, medicine, treatment — that are the exterior manifestations of beliefs shared by healer and patient alike.

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. [...]

It becomes a counter suggestion, yet it is all a part of the same hypnotic process, based upon his belief in his original illness. [...] If his belief in his poor health continues unchecked, the medicine will no longer serve as an adequate counter measure. [...]

[...] Your present beliefs structure the memories which will parade before you now — and what you remember will then seem to justify the beliefs.

I have frequently said that beliefs cause reality, and that no symptom will simply fade away unless the “reason” is ascertained — but such reasons go far beneath your current ideas of cause and effect. [...] Beneath them, the apparent causes of limitations in personal life, there are other far-reaching beliefs, and each individual will use those elements in his private experience to back these up. [...]

You are not at the mercy of past beliefs, therefore. [...] If you are poor and want to have more money, and try to maintain a belief in abundance — while still faced with the fact of present poverty — you must in your reality make some symbolic move that shows you are willing to accept a change.

If such information is given to you by another, by a psychic, for example, that individual is also very apt to pick up those “lives” that make sense to you now, and — unconsciously of course — to structure them precisely along the lines of your beliefs. [...] If he thinks he must pay for his sins now, then that belief will attract memory of those lives that will reinforce it; this will be highly organized recall, leaving out everything that does not apply.

[...] As I told you, the reasons behind the body beliefs have largely vanished. You are left with beliefs about the body. These, denied the core beliefs that gave them birth, would naturally begin to weaken but could linger for some time, generally speaking, unless they were recognized as beliefs.

[...] Earlier Ruburt’s beliefs behind the body beliefs causing the difficulty affected him in such a way that he picked up from others those moods and feelings that agreed with him, so often constructive body messages could not get through. Now however you are left with body beliefs that no longer have a foundation in other personal beliefs, so they will secede much more quickly in the face of encouragement, enthusiasm, and projects that are otherwise personally desired. [...]

So beliefs about Ruburt’s body on both of your parts, but of course primarily on Ruburt’s part, must be understood as beliefs that then cause physical experience. Some of these have already begun to vanish, but both of you to some extent project them into the future, treat them as conditions in fact, and not as beliefs that cause conditions.

[...] All of this because of your beliefs about Ruburt’s body—again, primarily Ruburt’s beliefs, but yours also. [...]

As I told you a while back, Ruburt is left with body beliefs. The reasons behind those beliefs largely no longer operate. [...] The body beliefs however have not been challenged.

I told you both to do certain suggestions together, because your belief in them and your effectiveness could help him revive his own body beliefs. [...] While the main challenge is his, you can help by reviving your own beliefs that he can indeed return to normal physical behavior.

The initiating reasons behind those beliefs have been challenged. [...] They led up to the resulting body beliefs, however. [...]

[...] Now those body beliefs have still to be tackled.

(4:28.) We must also remember, however, that in a fashion beliefs themselves are tools, and that in some situations beliefs that seem quite negative can also clear the way for more beneficial ones. With all of this discussion of negative beliefs, therefore, it is a good idea not to call any beliefs bad or evil in themselves. [...] If you look upon them in that manner, you will avoid being overwhelmed by what seems to be an endless parade of negative thoughts and beliefs that can only lead to destruction. Instead, compare the negative beliefs, for example, with the storms that sweep the country: they have their purposes — and all in all those purposes tend to promote and support life itself.

Foremost, connected with the distortions about creativity and expression, is the belief that knowledge itself is dangerous, evil, and bound to lead to disaster. [...] What you actually have behind such a belief is a fear of free will and of making choices.

These concepts have many cousins, so that we actually have an entire family of beliefs that are all in one way or another related.

[...] This should be kept in mind whenever we discuss beliefs that are specifically sexually oriented.

[...] Your point is vital—that he separate the belief from himself, and recognize it as a belief: that he cannot walk properly (at break). [...] The belief that his legs and knees cannot support his weight is an old belief, and a belief, not a statement of fact in basic terms. Until now the belief, however, has resulted in a condition of experience—a falsehood perpetuated upon the body, to which it has then responded. The belief was the result of faulty perception and understanding, adopted because of those other beliefs about work that no longer apply.

[...] The inner beliefs are continually strengthening the ones of freedom, and the body is responding. It is precisely here that you run up against the body beliefs. [...] Yet at the same time all motions and actions reinforce the healthy body beliefs and dissolve the old ones.

[...] The old body beliefs were adopted to serve the purposes of other beliefs about work that have now almost, but not entirely, completely dissolved. [...]

While Ruburt was in the framework of beliefs he held, the apartment house then did serve somewhat as a countermeasure. [...]

Reality, then, is viewed through this system of beliefs. [...] People entertaining such beliefs are often very religious in conventional terms. Countries emphasizing like beliefs send missionaries to “convert” those who are pagan, and therefore inferior.

Now: Any intrusion of other beliefs here will be considered threatening. Both racial problems and religious dissension will be rationalized from the standpoint of these beliefs. [...] However, they may then use that concept to justify their belief in the inferiority of other races. [...]

[...] Now if you happen to be Protestant, male, white, American, rich, and healthy, at least within the framework of your beliefs you can look at yourself with “clear” eyes. [...] If however you hold this group of beliefs and you fall short — that is, if in some way you do not fit in — then even within that system you are in trouble.

Here we have a system of belief in which it is wrong to be white, American, or wealthy, or even at all well-off in financial terms. [...] If the first system of beliefs sees money and goods as a sign of God’s blessing, the second group views material possessions as evidence of spiritual decay.

There are two ways to get at your own conscious beliefs. [...] Write down your beliefs in a variety of areas, and you will find that you believe different things at different times. [...] These represent opposing beliefs that regulate your emotions, your bodily condition and your physical experience. [...] 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. [...]

Belief systems are as necessary and natural as physical organs are. [...] Left alone, your thoughts will come and go through your belief systems just as naturally; and ideally, they will balance out, maintaining their own health and directing your body so that its innate therapies take place.

Your systems of belief will of course attract certain kinds of thoughts, with their trails of emotional experience. A steady barrage of hateful, revengeful thoughts should actually lead you to look for the beliefs from which they are gaining their strength.

Now: It is true that habitual thoughts of love, optimism and self-acceptance are better for you than their opposites; but again, your beliefs about yourself will automatically attract thoughts that are consistent with your ideas. [...] Hate is a distortion of such a normal force, the result of your beliefs.

[...] Realize that your physical experience and environment is the materialization of your beliefs. If you find great exuberance, health, effective work, abundance, smiles on the faces of those you meet, then take it for granted that your beliefs are beneficial. If you see a world that is good, people that like you, take it for granted, again, that your beliefs are beneficial. But if you find poor health, a lack of meaningful work, a lack of abundance, a world of sorrow and evil, then assume that your beliefs are faulty and begin examining them.

The beliefs of course will be accepted by you not as beliefs, but as reality. Once you understand that you form your reality, then you must begin to examine these beliefs by letting the conscious mind freely examine its own contents.

[...] (Pause.) The ego can use the conscious mind almost entirely as a way of perceiving external or internal realities that coincide with its own beliefs. It is not that certain answers do not lie openly accessible, therefore, but that often you have set yourself on a course of action in which you believe, and you do not want to open yourself to any material that may contradict your current beliefs.

Now these may be the result of one specific belief, or caused by a complex of beliefs held together.

Now such invasion is usually the sudden appearance of previously unacceptable beliefs, quite conscious but invisible, tucked away. [...] In all cases of this nature involving Augustus-type episodes, the problem is one of unassimilated beliefs. Instead of such comparatively drastic behavior, however, such beliefs can be expressed through various parts of the body. Unfortunately, a system of medicine that largely deals with symptoms only encourages a patient to project such beliefs on new organs, for instance, after already sacrificing others in operations.

[...] If the analyst, over a period of time, should convince Augustus that his condition in the present resulted from some specific inhibited event in the past, and if the analyst was an intuitive and understanding man, then Augustus might change his beliefs enough so that some kind of “cure” was worked. [...]

[...] The chemical changes were caused by the transition in beliefs that operated, and not the other way around.

[...] See the material on hormones and beliefs in the 621st session in Chapter Four.)

[...] Such beliefs attract their own reality. [...] On basic levels your convictions will be quite similar, but one will see himself as the victim and one as the aggressor — that is, each of you will react differently to the same set of beliefs. [...]

(9:25.) The beliefs of both of you find justification in physical life, and only reinforce themselves. [...] If you think that men are evil, however, you are often not able to examine that as a belief, but take it as a condition of reality.

[...] During your life, any event must come through your creaturehood, with the built-in time recognition that is so largely a part of your neurological structure; so usually there is a lag, a lapse in time, during which your beliefs cause material actualization. [...] You are changing the messages while the body is used to reacting smoothly, unquestioningly, to a certain set of beliefs.

[...] When you alter these conscious beliefs through effort, then a period of time is necessary while the structure learns to adjust to the new preferred situation. If beliefs are changed overnight, comparatively less time is required.

For now, I simply want to suggest that all such beliefs should be understood and dismissed as soon as possible. We hope to show how most natural health-promoting beliefs can be applied to all mental, physical, or emotional illnesses or difficulties. I want to assure you that regardless of your circumstances, age, or sex, you can indeed start over, rearousing from within yourself those earlier, more innocent expectations, feelings and beliefs. [...]

There is no need to search endlessly into the past of this life or any other, for the “original” causes for beliefs. Making a change in the present of a certain kind will automatically alter all beliefs “across the board,” so to speak. [...] You react to your beliefs habitually, often unthinkingly, and in usual ideas of time, and in your experience of it — you must allow yourself “some time” to change that habitual behavior.

The thoughts and beliefs that we want to rearouse are those that were often predominant in childhood, as mentioned earlier in this book. They are spiritual, mental, emotional and biological beliefs that are innately present in the birth of each creature. [...]

[...] Later, conflicting beliefs often smother such earlier attitudes, so that by the time children have grown into adults they actually hold almost an opposite set of hypotheses. [...]

[...] The telephone situation as it occurred on two occasions lately brings up in both of you a beautiful case of beliefs, conflicting beliefs, on both of your parts. Whenever such charged situations happen they are always the result of beliefs not consciously examined. [...]

I want you then to make a list of your beliefs concerning those events. If you consider them as beliefs that you hold, both of you, then you should be able to discuss them calmly, and understand what happens. You have not understood your own beliefs, much less communicated them to the other, and your joint behavior in such cases has largely resulted because you each hold conflicting ideas yourselves.

[...] He is working with beliefs, juggling them. [...]

[...] The cold is meant to lead him backward mentally and physically through the group of beliefs that initially cause the entire condition.

In this book we will be involved with the nature of beliefs and with various methods that will allow you to choose those beliefs that lead to a more satisfying life.

Obviously this hypothetical situation is a quick example of what I mean, with no mention of the innumerable other beliefs and half-beliefs that would encircle the man’s and the woman’s relationship.

If you are in serious difficulties of any kind, it may at first seem inconceivable, unbelievable, or even scandalous to imagine that your problems are caused by your own beliefs.

[...] You might have a very serious illness that seemed to come from nowhere, and it may strike you as most unlikely indeed, that your own beliefs had anything to do with the inception of such a frightening malady.

[...] Pause.) The nature of your personal beliefs in a large measure directs the kinds of emotions you will have at any given time. You will feel aggressive, happy, despairing, or determined according to events that happen to you, your beliefs about yourself in relation to them, and your ideas of who and what you are. You will not understand your emotions unless you know your beliefs. It will seem to you that you feel aggressive or upset without reason, or that your feelings sweep down upon you without cause if you do not learn to listen to the beliefs within your own conscious mind, for they generate their own emotions.

THE CONSCIOUS MIND AS THE CARRIER OF BELIEFS.

Now: The next chapter, Eleven, to be titled: “The Conscious Mind as the Carrier of Beliefs. Your Beliefs in Relation to Health and Satisfaction.” [...]

[...] In all cases the clues to your emotional experience and behavior lie in your systems of belief: some more evident to you than others, but all available to you consciously. If you believe that you are of little merit, inferior and filled with guilt, then you may react in several ways according to your personal background and the framework in which you accepted those beliefs. [...]

Since it is formed by beliefs held by natural creatures, culture is, as Ruburt states, as natural as your physical environment. Once you are born into a particular time and country, you do grow up in an almost invisible but definite environment of concepts, assumptions, and predetermined ideas that serve as a basis from which your own individual beliefs spring. [...]

[...] He climbed through belief systems with an unerring sense of direction, but as he toppled one there was always another. [...] But that world of beliefs also was found highly limiting. [...]

Now while this journey went on, and while he traveled through systems, disregarding, finally, one series of beliefs after another, he still carried to some degree certain basic root assumptions, held in different ways by all of those systems. Still carrying some of these himself, and with my help, he began a study of the nature of belief itself.

[...] Your society puts great stress upon the belief that there is a division between inner and outer, physical and mental activity. [...] So the beliefs go. [...]

A new belief in the present, however, can cause changes in the past on a neuronal level. [...] Present beliefs can indeed alter the past. [...]

Such predictions can affect the probabilities, of course, and reinforce a present line of belief. [...] In some cases such a prediction can make death a fact — while its opposite can regenerate the patient’s belief in his or her own ability to live.

(Pause at 10:01.) A sudden or intense belief in health can indeed “reverse” a disease, but in a very practical way it is a reversal in terms of time. [...]

In somewhat the same way, a strong belief in a particular ability generated in the present will reach into the past and effect whatever changes would have had to occur there (with gestures) in order to now make the ability apparent.