“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

As your conscious beliefs determine your bodily condition, and as your body is maintained at an unconscious level (though in line with your beliefs), so natural catastrophes are the result of the beliefs that give rise to emotional states which are then automatically transformed into exterior atmospheric conditions.

(Pause.) Instead of a flood, disastrous social upheavals could have erupted. Because of the peculiar, unique and characteristic feeling-tones involved, however, the resulting emotional tensions were released, automatically transformed, into the atmosphere. A natural catastrophe provided many answers. The [Chemung] river was close by, directly in the heart of the business section [of Elmira], for example.

Again, all of this involved other areas affected by the flood. As certain primitives do rain dances and consciously bring about rain, deliberately directing unconscious forces, so the people in these different places did the same thing quite automatically, without awareness of the processes involved.

The power of the water put each individual in touch with intimate recognition of his dependence upon nature, and made him question values taken for granted too long. Such a crisis automatically forces each person to examine values, to make instant choices that will provide him with recognitions to which he had been blind earlier.

Many past beliefs were automatically shattered in the reality of the moment. Powers of initiation and action, long buried, were released in numberless individuals. Federal funds were directed instantly to this region. The spotlight was turned on to the section. (Pause.) Many lonely people were forced, or rather forced themselves, into a situation where it was imperative that they relate with others. Since this is not the main topic of this book, I cannot go deeply into the ways and means involved.