“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I came to the defense of Ned and the poor fish and of Ned, the poor fish. Our Ned chose a fish, subconsciously, for many reasons. First of all, the fish was a part of himself that he materialized within the dream state. It represented, to him, something quite different than the Christian fish you wear around your neck (to Joel).

The dream served several purposes. It allowed him to release aggression in a much less violent manner than he would have in the past. It also, however, allowed him to see the picture of his own aggression as it existed on a subconscious level of his mind. The aggression that he feared was not so great and big and powerful and black and hairy and threatening as he thought. Instead, it was a part of himself and very small, fish size, you see, and easy to squash and kick. It was not this giant that you feared, and it was easy to rid yourself of this. Now, in this case, the fish was not a probable fish in another reality. It was a portion, however, of his own energy.

Now, it would have been far more beneficial had he been able to use that energy, keep it as a part of himself and transform it into a more constructive nature. However, the dream taught him that the violence within himself was not big and threatening and did not need to be feared. He could use it as a symbol to see how small it was in comparison to the whole inner self and how easy, therefore, it was to rid himself of it. He cried however because, you see, he realized that this was part of his priceless energy that he had expended, uselessly, and in the tears lay the lesson.

([Joel:]“I was thinking back to a few weeks ago when we were talking about a hypothetical case of two fellows having some kind of an argument with one another, and the other formulated a mental image of himself slugging his opponent. You said, at that time, it was a kind of self-defeating attitude, and it would have been much more beneficial for him to utilize his energy in striking some kind of an inanimate object or running up and down the road.”)

Now, the point that our friend over here (Sue) was trying to make earlier is related, to some extent, along these lines in that you can become so afraid of violence that you overemphasize its effect. And if you will excuse me, in so doing you are taking on the guise of the devil. It is the same thing you see, as projecting upon a hypothetical devil all kinds of powers of destruction. You can do the same thing without realizing it by projecting into the idea of violence, all powers, and then it seems to you that life itself has no ability to protect itself and that any stray thought of violence or disaster will immediately zoom home and that the recipient has no way to protect himself. If this were the case your race would not have lasted out one day.

([Joel:] “We appear quite vulnerable though. I was thinking of the fish again. When you say the lilies of the field may, lose a leaf or two, but still have a great deal of protection, I was wondering had Ned’s fish, perhaps. In his case it was only an image, but in my case, suppose I had a probable fish. Now what kind of protection would that fish have had against my violent acts?”)

There was a civilization, and I am writing this in my book and some of you know of it—a civilization, in your terms, in your dim past, in which a group of human beings tried to form a physical body that could not act violently and when violence was threatened the body automatically closed off from action. It could not, literally, act. These people thought then that violence would be wiped away from the face of the earth, and they hoped to begin a race of people that would not know violence. It would seem perhaps to you, that this was a highly idealistic race and that they grew in strength and beauty, but they were not facing the issues clearly, you see.

They were so on the outlook for violence that their entire system of communication was built upon fear, for they could not protect themselves, they could only run. They did not face the issue of creative energy and how to use it. They blocked the energy off at the source. To put a hole into the earth is violent. To pluck up a flower from the earth is violent. To yell out into the air, as I am doing, does a violence to the atoms and molecules. Your blood rushing through your body does violence to it then. Learn what energy and life is, and then you will use it creatively and you will not fear it.

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.

You were never a cannibal. The cannibals knew this sacrament subconsciously. It was built around a religious ritual. It was subconscious, but it was also consciously learned and followed. Their rituals were as strict as they are in your church and they were as religious as they followed them.

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.

And (to Florence) your dream was significant.

([Florence:] “Can you tell me who was trying to hypnotize me?”)