“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] When this happens the out-of-body traveler is not simply out of his or her corporal form. [...] Even if an individual leaves the body and wanders about the room no more than a few feet away from where the body is located,³ there are alterations, dash — the relationship of consciousness to the room is different. [...] Time out of the body is “free time” by your standards. [...]

I have said (as at 9:48) that the body can indeed carry on, performing necessary maintenance activities while the main consciousness is detached from it. [...] (Pause.) In sleep, in fact, it is not at all necessary that the main consciousness be alert in the body. Only in certain kinds of civilizations, for that matter, is such a close body-and-main-consciousness relationship necessary. There are other situations, therefore, in which consciousness ordinarily strays much further, returning to the body as a home station and basis of operation, relying upon it for certain kinds of perception only, but not depending upon it for the entire picture of reality. [...]

[...] The meeting of body consciousness and your main consciousness requires an intense focus, in which the greatest manipulations are necessary. [...] The consciousness then leaves the body. The body consciousness stays with it.

(Long pause in a steady, rather fast delivery.) Man’s dream body is still with him, of course, but the physical body now obscures it. The dream body cannot be harmed while the physical one can—as man quickly found out as he transformed his experience largely from one to the other. In the dream body man feared nothing. The dream body does not die. [...] In their dream bodies men had watched the spectacle of animals “killing” other animals, and they saw the animals’ dream bodies emerge unscathed.

[...] He becomes fully operational in his physical body, and while awake can only sense the dream body that had earlier been so real to him. He now encounters his experience from within a body that must be fed, clothed, protected from the elements—a body that is subject to gravity and to earth’s laws. [...]

[...] They watched the drama of the “hunter” and the “prey,” seeing that each animal contributed so that the physical form of the earth could continue—but the rabbit eaten by the wolf survived in a dream body that men knew was its true form. When man “awakened” in his physical body, however, and specialized in the use of its senses, he no longer perceived the released dream body of the slain animal running away, still cavorting on the hillside. [...]

[...] Other personalities who never completely take to earthly existence may hold off full entry for some time, and even then always remain at a certain distance from the body. At the other end of the scale, before death the same applies, where some individuals remove their focus from physical life, leaving the body consciousness alone. Others stay with the body until the last moment. In the early days of infancy, there is not a steady focus of the personality in the body in any case.

[...] A crisis, particularly in very early or very late life, may so shatter the personality’s identification with the body that he vacates it temporarily. [...] He may leave so completely that the body goes into coma, if the body consciousness has also suffered shock. If the shock is psychological and the body consciousness is still operating more or less normally, then he may revert to an earlier reincarnational personality.

The hold of the personality over the body is tenuous in the early years, and grows stronger. The personality, for its own reasons, may decide upon choosing a body that is not aesthetically pleasing. He may never relate to it, and while the existence will serve what purposes he had in mind, there will always be a basic sensed distance between the body and the personality within it.

[...] The body’s activity, and there is much of it, is directed toward normal flexibility. In medical procedures, say, the body’s feelings are often masked. This is one of the reasons, say, for the development of secondary symptoms of a medical nature, when one portion of the body is treated, and then other portions seem to develop symptoms. The body is a whole. Each process of the body has that wholeness in mind.

Ruburt’s condition now, then, involves the whole body in a natural fashion. The quickness will become more apparent first with the freedom of upper portions of the body—but those upper portions can use their freedom only as the ankles and feet become more pliable. The body has its own sense, therefore, and order.

[...] The quickness in various portions of the body may at times confuse him, for other portions cannot as yet keep up. [...] It is of more importance, however, that you remember that the body improves to improve.

If he only sees your physical body then he should address you, announce his own out-of-body state and invite you to join him. If you are still in your body and if conditions are good, you will then leave your body and join him. [...]

[...] There is no reason, again, why you can’t achieve out-of-body proficiency, and when you do, you will be able to experiment with thought creations, trying out, forming, using or discarding, thought paintings. In an out-of-body state you can reach rather easily those environments which thoughts become a sort of plastic pseudo material, almost instantaneously.

[...] If he finds himself astrally awake and sees only your physical body, then you are either on an unconscious astral trip already, or your astral body has not left your physical one. [...]

[...] You might think, for example, of the body being invaded by viruses, or attacked by a particular disease, and these ideas, then, may make you question. You might well wonder why the body consciousness does not simply rise up and cast off any threatening diseases: why would the body allow certain cells to go berserk, or outgrow themselves? The very concept of the immunity system suggests, at least, the disease invader against which the body’s immunity system must or should surely defend itself.

[...] It is perhaps easier to imagine a continuum of consciousness, for you have a body consciousness also, and that body consciousness is itself made up of the individual consciousness of each molecule that forms all parts of the body itself.

Before we can really study the nature of health or illness, we must first understand human consciousness and its relationship with the body.

Now: it may seem to most people that an exuberant, always-vital, energetic, healthy body would indeed be one of the greatest gifts of all—a body that never worried or showed signs of any disorder, a body that went ahead on its own, so to speak, propelled by feelings of strength and vigor. [...] Yet I tell you that in such a body you would finally feel like a prisoner, for your moods and reflections, your feelings and your thoughts, would find no responsive mirror in your flesh. [...]

It is natural and healthy to yearn for a comfortable body if you are in health difficulties. The body, however, is not an assumed facade, but the physical materialization in your world of your inner being. [...]

[...] The individual may realize that his or her pace has been too fast, and so natural feelings bring about a lethargy of body, or a slight fever, or an indisposition—all quite natural, resilient activities. [...] Such announcements actually teach people to fear what might be happening within the body. [...]

[...] There is a connection of course between such inner manipulation and the actual physical body—so Ruburt felt physical sensation that was, however, not a part of what he thinks of as the body. It felt as if another body, oddly his, yet connected with the physical body—while not it—was being manipulated. Actually the body was being changed, but at a level beneath ordinary body awareness, at prematerial structure.

The body changes are strange. Few work so intimately with body and mind. [...]

[...] At certain levels the “matter” of the body is “plastic.” [...]

[...] That is the result of the body’s magical reasoning — for the body reasons so quickly, so clearly and concisely (pause), that its deductions, its logic, are far too fast for the intellect to follow. The body reasons directly. The body’s reasoning transforms itself into action, with nothing to stand between its elegant logic and the (pause) logic’s brilliant execution. [...]

The body is not a tool, to do your mental bidding. (Pause.) Your body is a mental expression physically materialized. More improvements are indeed even now occurring, and as long as Ruburt’s attitude continues to improve you can expect such progress — for again, the body is quite capable of healing itself completely, and with far greater ease than you give it credit for.

[...] “There’s so much going on in my body at one time it’s hard to handle that too,” she laughed. She referred to the continuing series of changes — improvements — taking place all through her body. [...]

(Pause.) The body is composed of organs, physical parts, living matter—but the body is also composed of processes, relationships that exist on all levels between various portions of the body and between the body and its environment. [...]

In a fashion, as I have said before, you are highly uneducated about the activity of your own bodies, and taught to suspect your own bodily sensations. Patterns and pathways of energy are being reopened and reactivated in Ruburt’s body. This applies throughout the body, and is also responsible for the sensations in the legs and hips. [...]

(10:17.) There are certain interior physical events that can happen within Ruburt’s body to help him move more naturally, but he cannot possibly consciously comprehend each change that must occur, and when viewed in that light the entire exercise seems so complicated as to be almost impossible. To the body, however, this is the kind of natural action it is always involved in, as it constantly rebuilds itself, maintains life, and it involves the body in work that it is indeed highly equipped to perform. [...]

He did not until today connect up the idea of the power of the will and his body, for he has willed his body down. He sees that the challenge has been won, and now it is time to take up the next challenge, to apply the power of the will to the body.

[...] Because the body has its own sense there were always periods when it rebelled, when physical improvements showed. [...] We are still working on one challenge,” so it seemed, finally, that he was powerless or helpless to alter the rigidity of his body.

Yet when he improved he felt that he did not want those “new distractions,” and so the power of his will still kept the body down. [...]

The body consciousness must react to your (underlined) interpretation of an exterior stimulus as well. The body consciousness, for example, will react quite differently to, say, two slaps of exactly the same pressure—one an energetic love slap, and the other one delivered in ridicule or anger. The physical stimulus itself, however, would be precisely the same, but the body would react to your understanding of that stimulus. [...]

[...] In its moment-to-moment reactions, the body consciousness is, you might say, “literal-minded.” [...] The symbols are the realm in which interpretations are made, but the body must always react moment by moment at that level of activity, irregardless of a vast knowledge of probabilities. [...]

[...] The body consciousness is geared for action, vitality, growth, curiosity, excitement, whether it be mental or physical. If there is a large body of beliefs, however, that dampen those bodily purposes, that encourage timidity rather than courage, promote fear rather than faith, then you run into difficulty—particularly if the grounds for those beliefs are not present in any given moment. [...]

[...] When you form the living sculpture of your body, which is far more important to you than any work of art, you should certainly follow the same course. In other words, direct your energies toward the creation of a healthy functioning body. [...]

[...] Dreams of a strongly aggressive nature in this context may be very beneficial to a given individual, allowing the release of usually inhibited feelings and freeing the body from tension. By such constant dream therapy, both body and mind regulate themselves to a large degree. [...]

[...] The body, mind and psyche are then more or less operating together. [...] When imbalances of a physical nature are removed by the introduction of drugs, however, the body signals say that the inner dilemma must have been taken care of also — while this may not be the case at all (very positively).

If you do not understand that in periods of sleep your consciousness actually does leave your body, then what I have said will be meaningless. Now your consciousness does return at times, to check upon the physical mechanisms, and the simple consciousness of atom and cell — the body consciousness — is always with the body, so it is not vacant. But the largely creative portions of the self do leave the body, and for large periods of time when you sleep.

Two periods of three hours apiece would be quite sufficient for most people, if the proper suggestions were given before sleep — suggestions that would insure the body’s complete recuperation. In many cases ten hours sleep, for example, is actually disadvantageous, resulting in a sluggishness both of mind and body. In this case the spirit has simply been away from the body for too long a time, resulting in a loss of muscular flexibility.

[...] Consciousness wants to return to the body, but it has been hypnotized into the idea that the body must not awaken. Excess nervous energy takes over, and rouses the muscles to activity, because the body knows it has been inactive for too long and otherwise severe muscular cramps would result.

Any normal process or feeling of the body can then be magnified or dwelled upon until it seems to provide only further proof of the same fears—which are then projected into the future. [...] They are kind to their bodies. They give their bodies (pause) credit for having an animal’s good sense, vitality and endurance. They do not think their bodies are out to get them. [...]

Your body consciousness is like the consciousness of any animal—alert, above all optimistic, focused in the present, as you understand it, glorifying in motion and in rest, in excitement and in quietude. The body seeks to use itself. The body consciousness enjoys its own expression. [...]

[...] They react in their own ways to suggestion to the tone of your voice, to your expectations of their behavior, to your treatment of them—and in that regard your body consciousness responds to your conscious treatment of it. For this analogy alone, meant to further develop your joint understanding of the relationship between your conscious mind and your body, we will make further points. Think of your body, for the purpose of this discussion, as a healthy animal. [...]

Ruburt does the steps, something he does not do inside—a change for the body, and a good one—but in his position an exercise in itself. Both of you even refuse to think of using the table in the garage, so Ruburt forces his body into the most unnatural of positions so that he can lean upon the car. [...] He made it to the car, knowing that on the other occasions that his body had so protested he had had difficulty. [...]

On another occasion, he might have wanted to go out, to take a drive; and the impulse will also be the result of the body’s knowledge that the time is right. [...] Ruburt’s body messages should be heeded. [...] If not, you both take it for granted that the body is not in the middle of a process, but that some immediate challenge exists.

[...] However, the pattern was thusly: in rhythmic patterns of activity, the entire body, part by part, stretched itself from head to toe. This was done in the body’s own order. [...]

The sense of sight, mostly concentrated in your eyes, remains fixed in a permanent position on your physical body. [...] Without moving away from the physical body the eyes see something that may be far in the distance. In the same manner the ears hear sounds that are distant from the body. In fact, and this is a rather important point, the ears ordinarily hear sounds outside the body more readily than sounds inside the body itself. Since the ears are in the body more or less, and of it, it would be logical for an open-minded observer to suppose that the ears would be well attuned to the inner sounds to a high degree. [...]

The inner senses deliver data from the inner world of reality to the body. The outer senses deliver data from the outside world of camouflage to the body. However, the inner senses are aware of the body’s own physical data at all times, while the outer senses are concerned with the body mainly in its relationship to camouflage environment. In other words the inner senses have an immediate, constant knowledge of the body in a way that the outer senses do not.

Your eyes, while belonging to the body, cannot see within the body. The ears can be trained to some degree by neurotic individuals into a sound awareness pertaining to the body itself. [...] But as a rule the ears neither listen to nor hear the inner sounds of the body.

The ideas that you have, then, play a large role in the way the body handles its nutrients, and utilizes its health and vitality. If you believe that the body is somehow evil, you may punish it by nearly starving to death, even though your diet might be considered normal by usual standards. For it is possible for your ideas to cause chemical reactions that impede your body’s ability to accept nourishment. If you believe that the body is evil, the purest health-food diet will or may do you little good at all, while if you have a healthy desire and respect for your physical body, a diet of TV dinners, and even of fast foods, may well keep you healthy and nourished.

The body often wears out because it has been used less and less — and that is because little study has been given to the true capabilities of the healthy physical body in the later years of life. That period also contains certain rhythms in which normal healing processes are highly accelerated, and the life force itself does not wear out or lessen within a body. [...]

[...] Members of such organizations often suffer maladies in which their bodies do not utilize nutrients. They are often food faddists of one kind or another, but because they do fear spontaneity to such a degree they will often become afflicted with diseases or maladies associated with the body’s unconscious processes.

[...] The physical body is basically equipped to maintain itself as a healthy long-living organism far beyond your present understanding, medically speaking. [...] There is a physical give-and-take between the body and environment beyond that which you recognize; an inner dynamics here that escapes you, that unites the health of plants, animals, and men. [...] Ideally, the body has the capacity to keep itself in excellent health — but beyond that, to maintain itself at the highest levels of physical achievement. The exploits of your greatest athletes give you a hint of the body’s true capacity. [...] But their performances show you what the body is capable of.

Under certain conditions, therefore, the body can maintain itself while the “main consciousness” is away from it. The body consciousness is quite able, then, to provide the overall equilibrium. [...] In sleepwalking the body is active, but the main consciousness is not “awake.” It is not manipulating the body. [...] Under such conditions the body can perform tasks and often maneuver with an amazing sense of balance. [...]

Now in the case of an animal who hibernates, the body is in the same state. But in the greater hibernation of your own experience, the body as a whole becomes inoperable. [...] The body that you have now is not the one that you had 10 years ago; its physical composition has died completely many times since your birth, but, again, your consciousness bridges those gaps (with gestures). They could be accepted instead, in which case it would seem to you that you were, say, a reincarnated self at age 7 (intently), or 14 or 21. [...] In basic terms the body dies often, and as surely as you think it dies but once in the death you recognize. [...] The stuff of your body literally falls into the earth many times, as you think it does only at the “end of your life.”

I want you to take it for granted that your body feels—but that you have often inhibited the feeling. Therefore, I want you in your lovemaking to imagine that your body is like a field—be aware as stimuli come to this field—feel it waken. [...] The body is affected by touch in the same way as a field by the wind, the sun and the rain. I simply suggest, therefore, that you become aware in the same manner—that you listen for what your body feels. [...]

[...] Concentrate upon what your body feels. Imagine, the interrelationship, for example, between his hand and the particular portion of your body that it is touching. Realize that the simple atoms and molecules that compose your bodies are aware, and are vital and participating. [...]

[...] When making love, simply become aware of what your body feels. Do not try to force your body onward. [...]