“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The cannibals, in one way, were far more discerning, far more religious, and far more sacred in their attitude than many of you here in this room. They ate, for example, both human beings and animals, but they did not eat indiscriminately, nor did they eat without a knowledge of what they did. They realized that their life was a portion of all this life. They were at one level, and you are at another level. But at their level, and in their level of experience, they partook of the sacrament of life as they ate those things that they slayed. They gave thanks to the body that they consumed. They hastened the spirit that had been in the body on its way with thanks. They prayed that their hearts would be as strong and brave as the hearts that they devoured. Many of them, in their own environment, knew that those who were not eaten by them, for example other warriors, would die of hunger in any case. They ate them, therefore, also with thanksgiving and joy.

They ate the brave and the strong. Now, some tribes ate the elders. When the old could not care for themselves, if they were very wise and brave men, then they had a dance about them and this was known by all involved. They then killed and ate the wise elders. Both as a method of ending their lives, in a quiet manner, for they killed them easily when they were too old to run from jungle animals or from hunters or from warriors from other tribes. They killed them mercifully, and then they ate them so that the wisdom could become a part of the brave and so that, in one way, immortality could be achieved, in that the elders would then feel that they were a part of the tribe and part of the flesh and blood of the tribe. And this was believed by all, and this was not feared by the elders. The elders preferred it rather than to be banished and left the prey of animals or to die of starvation and slow death outside of the tribe.