“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

...to solve your problems and triumph over your challenges—and the impetus is this: You must not journey into inner reality until you feel secure in physical reality—for you cannot live in two worlds at once unless you are secure in one. You need a firm groundwork—a groundwork that you can trust. And then you can travel through these other doors, but you must be able to stand on your two feet in this universe—and then you will go consciously where your body cannot follow and you will find your answers. But you must have something secure to hang on to. Now there is no better reason to solve your problems.

When you are certain that you feel at least reasonably secure, where you are, then we shall take you to where you are not and you will find yourself. You are already there, but in order to go there, you must start from somewhere. You must start with, you see, a balance and a degree of security—you must start with confidence. And if you travel too quickly and too far, you will not have confidence. For in the back of your mind you will think: If I do not feel secure in physical reality, then why should I feel secure here—and you will not have the daring that is necessary, nor will you have the peace of mind—and the peace of mind is the key to the door.

If I could sing that beautifully, I would sing for you through our classes. Now I wish you (Daniel) a bon voyage. And I did not mean to hurt your (class) feelings; far be it from me to hurt your feelings when you hurt your own so well you do not need help from me. I will have a message for you (Florence) through our friend Ruburt shortly in any case. I simply wanted you to know that I was here and I did have a specific message that I wanted to deliver to our friend (Brad) on this side. And if you do not have the words recorded, they are recorded there (pointing to Brad’s head) and you will not forget them. And when I make promises I make promises and I keep them. And when I say I will give a “push” at a certain time, I will give a fine push... though then you may not need it. I’ve come through this evening in any case simply as a friend. I wish you all well. I am not going to keep you until two o’clock in your morning. Some evening I will keep you until two o’clock in the morning just so you can say that I have done it. But you would not bless me the following morning—of that I am sure.

Now, indeed you are. And—as a piece or chunk of physical matter—you are indeed immediate and here. You do not understand the ways in which you project the physical matter of yourself into this room, however. When you understand that completely and fully, you will no longer be within physical reality. But that is of little notice. You will never notice the difference. In any reality, you create the image that you see. And the reality that follows this one will seem as physical to you as this—and as real. But you will have freedoms within it that you do not have now—not unless at 8 o’clock in the morning you leap from the rooftops and fly through the windows to your death.

You can do things with the inner image that you cannot do with the physical image. But while you are doing them, they appear physical. Do you follow me?

Now. In this existence, when you see a picture in your mind, and when there is strong emotion and vivid desire behind it, it will be constructed. There will be a time lapse within this system, but in other systems there may be no time lapse—and your thought may be instantly transposed into reality. Therefore, now you must learn the nature of your thoughts and how to handle energy.

([Theodore:] “But between the time of thinking about it now and the time it becomes a reality, other thoughts can come to bear on that idea and change it before it becomes a reality. Is that so?”)

Now as a compromise, but not as a composite. I will leave you, but I will give you more information on that topic the next time we meet. And I will keep my eye on you (Daniel), but I will not bear tales.

([Theodore:] “He talked some more about physical matter—and elaboration on the things we’ve talked about during the evening. The reality on another plane or in another dimension is just as physical as what we experience as physical here—just as real, seems physical to them. But the freedoms are greater, so that when we think of something on another plane, it happens instantaneously. Whereas here, there is a time lag between the time we think of something and it results in a created action or object. In the time lag on this plane, there are other thoughts, projections on the same idea or object; Seth declined to go into their effects on the final idea or object until a later time.

... But never as a finished product. For a state of health is not an end product—or an unchanging station in those terms. It is the ability to effectively handle energy in a constructive way for your own benefit and the benefit of others. The state of health is a poor term. You should indeed imagine yourself, therefore, able to handle your energy effectively for your own good and the good of others; to imagine yourself as a channel through which the creativity of the universe can express itself. For when you harbor negative ideas and resentments, then indeed you set up a block and the block causes distortions. Now you call them illnesses in many instances. They are distortions. The energy is being distorted and misused and misshapen.

([Theodore:] “But to want good health or position just for the sake of that is not the end of the line. That, you are saying, is just the beginning of...”)

Now I did not intend a question-and-answer service this evening, but I seem to be involved in one. And some evening I will turn the tables. And when I ask you questions, I will expect some answers. And they will not be easy questions—and they will not be general questions. And I will make you search for the answers—and the answers will form steps upon which you can walk and will serve as foundations within which you can travel within yourselves. But they will be your answers and not my answers.

([Theodore: ]“But the point is—I guess the question I’m asking is: Am I really more interested in the certain possibilities of status, and that would not be the positive way of looking at things—or should I be seeing that man within a framework of, just as we were talking about health as just being a stepping stone, should I be seeing this man with a viewpoint towards what this can mean for helping other people be part of a constructive arrangement?”)

There are other ways to travel, and we will see that you learn of them. There are other fascinations and foreign countries upon your planet, but it is good that you learn of those also. We will get you used to the idea of foreign lands and then we will teach you to travel into lands that are really foreign—and we will give you an idea of the vocabulary used—and it will not be as simple as “good morning” and “good evening” or “where can I find a can of beans?”

And theoretically, theoretically, if you are using energy the way you should, you would indeed be at the top of your profession and in excellent health and filled with abundance. Now various kinds of lacks can show up in many ways—in mental deficiencies—a man or a woman who has strong and definite mental deficiencies—who has strong negative habits—such a person has blocks in those areas. You may not attain perfection now—I have not attained it. But it is the ideal toward which we must work.