“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

You were presented—or rather you presented yourself—with a prime example of the abilities of the natural person. I said something once to the effect that so-called miracles were simply the result of nature unimpeded, and certainly that is the case. You are presented now, in the world, with a certain picture of a body and its activities, and that picture seems (underlined) very evidential. It seems to speak for itself.

Your beliefs tell you, again, that the body is primarily a mechanism—a most amazing machine, but a machine (louder), without its own purpose, without any intent, a mindless assembly plant of assorted parts that simply happened to grow together in a certain prescribed fashion. Science says that there is no will, yet it assigns to nature the will to survive—or rather, a will-less instinct to survive. To that extent it does admit (underlined) that the machine of the body “intends” to insure its own survival—but a survival which has no meaning beyond itself. And because [the body] is a machine, it is expected to decay after so much usage.

In those times great age was a position of honor that brought along with it new responsibility and activity. The senses did not fade in their effectiveness, and it is quite possible biologically for all kinds of regenerations of that nature to occur.

(9:53.) Again, in our material on suffering (see the 895th session, for instance), I mentioned that illness serves purposes—that it has a face-saving quality in your society—so here I am speaking of the body’s own abilities. In that light, the senses do not fade. Age alone never brought about any loss of physical agility, or of mental ability, or of desire. Death must come to every living person, yet the time and the means are basically up to each individual. Meaningful work is important at any age. You cannot content the aged entirely with hobbies any more than you can the young, but meaningful work means work that also has the exuberance of play, and it is that playful quality that contains within itself great propensities of a healing and creative nature.

In a fashion, now, your eyes improved their capacities, practically speaking, in a playful manner. The senses want to exceed themselves. They also learn “through experience.” You have been painting more lately. Your eyes became more involved to that extent. Your eyes enjoy their part in that activity (intently), as the ears, say, enjoy hearing. It is their purpose. Your own desire to paint joined with and reinforced your eyes’ natural desire to see.

When [most of] you think of physical symptoms, of course, you regard your body with a deadly seriousness that to some extent impedes inner spontaneity. You lay your limiting beliefs upon the natural person.