“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

She told Ruburt that she felt herself to be an inferior person, unable to cope, an individual who was not able to hold her own with her co-workers or the world at large.

All of the available data coming into the organism would be sifted, weighed and valued in a precise search for the material that would give physical emphasis to those beliefs. Information or events running counter would be ignored to a large degree, or distorted in such a fashion that they would be made to fit in with what the mind said was reality.

Conscious beliefs focus your attention, channel it and direct your energy so that you can swiftly bring the ideas into your physical experience. They also act as blinders, throwing aside data that cannot be assimilated while preserving the integrity of the beliefs. So our Andrea did not see, or ignored, the smiles that came her way, or the encouragement; and in some cases she even perceived some potentially beneficial events as “negative” — these then were used to further reinforce the belief in her own inferiority.

Over the phone Ruburt reminded Andrea of her own basic uniqueness, and also of the fact that she was creating her reality through beliefs. Ruburt reinforced other ideas that Andrea had momentarily forgotten — the fact, among others, of her own true worth; and because Ruburt believed in Andrea’s worth, and because Andrea knew it, this more positive belief rose up to shove the others aside.

During the day, Andrea was able to look at both beliefs and see them as opposing ideas that she had held about herself. She believed she was unique and good — and also that she was inferior and bad. At various times one belief would color her experience nearly to the exclusion of the other. Just before this session Andrea called back. She realized that she had indeed set up the situation by not dealing honestly with her own conscious ideas.

She had wanted to leave her job for another one but was afraid of taking the step, so she created circumstances in which the decision was seemingly taken out of her hands; it would appear as if she were the victim of unfeeling co-workers, jealous and misunderstanding, and a boss who would not stand up for her.

(Pause at 9:42.) Now she understood that she was not a victim but the originator of those conditions. During the time involved, her feelings faithfully mirrored her conscious beliefs. She was lost in self-pity and self-condemnation. These brought about the weakened body state. In speaking to her the second time Ruburt gave Andrea excellent advice, explaining the way in which such feelings can be handled to advantage. In his or her own way, each reader can easily utilize the method.

Ruburt advised Andrea to accept the validity of such feelings as feelings — not to inhibit them, but to follow their flow with the understanding that they are feelings about reality. As themselves they are real. They express emotional reactions to beliefs. The next time Andrea feels inadequate, for example, she is to actively experience that feeling, realizing that even though she feels inferior this does not mean that she is inferior. She is to say, “I feel inferior,” and at the same time to understand that the feeling is not a statement of fact but of emotion. A different kind of validity is involved.

Experiencing your emotions as such is not the same as accepting them as statements of fact about your own existence. Andrea is then supposed to ask, “Why do I feel so inferior?” If you deny the validity of the emotion itself and pretend it away, then you will never be led to question the beliefs behind it.

I have used Andrea because so many typical Western beliefs coincide in her reality — the idea that aging is disastrous; that women are relatively powerless without a man beside them; that life is, practically speaking, highly difficult while it should be ideally simple. All of these ideas obtain their charge from a basic belief in the powerlessness of the conscious self to form and regulate its experience.

Luckily Andrea is working with her own system of beliefs. Presently, however, while she tells herself that age does not matter, she still believes that her desirability as a woman decreases with the passage of each day. So she feels and acts less attractive — when that belief holds sway. She is fortunate enough to be able to check her physical experience against her beliefs, and astute enough to see areas in which she has made great advances. But let us look at some of those beliefs and apply them to others generally.

You will be afraid of any powerful emotion, therefore; frightened of the dimensions of your own actuality, and to a large extent be led to run away from an acceptance of the power and energy of your own being. You will be forced to dilute your own experience. Such beliefs have a strong depressing characteristic that can lead you to shut down powerful feelings by immediately considering them negative.