“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

If there are strongly negative characteristics present in your most intimate thoughts, if these actually form bars between you and a more full life, still you often look through the bars, not seeing them. Until they are recognized they are impediments. Even obstacles have a reason for being. If they are your own, then it is up to you to recognize them and discover the circumstances behind their existence.

Sometimes you blame others, your own background, or a previous life — if you accept reincarnation. You may hold God or the devil responsible, or you may simply say, “That is life,” and accept the negative experience as a necessary portion of your lot.

Only when it abdicates its functions does it allow itself to become swayed by “negative” experience. Only when it refuses responsibility does it finally find itself at the seeming mercy of events over which it appears to have no control.

Now: Books on positive thinking alone, while sometimes beneficial, usually do not take into consideration the habitual nature of negative feelings, aggressions, or repressions. Often these are merely swept under the rug.

The existence of so-called negative thoughts and feelings will not be glossed over, but neither will your ability to handle these. Period. For they are quite under your control. There are methods of using these as springboards for creativity. At no time will you be told to repress them, to ignore them. You will be shown how to recognize those within your experience, to discover which of them has been allowed to run away with you, and how to manage those that seem to be beyond your control.