“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

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.

Often, of course, those who try the hardest to be “good” do so because they fear for their basic worth, and those who speak of having youthful minds and bodies do so because they are so terrified of age. In the same way, many who shout about independence are afraid that they are basically helpless. In most instances these opposing beliefs are held quite consciously, but kept apart from each other. Therefore they are not reconciled.