“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Individual reactions follow this innate knowledge, for while man fears the unleashed power of nature and tries to protect himself from it, he revels in it and identifies with it at the same time. (Pause.) The more “civilized” man becomes, the more his social structures and practices separate him from intimate relationship with nature — and the more natural catastrophes there will be, because underneath he senses his great need for identification with nature; he will himself conjure it into earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods, so that he can once again feel not only their energy but his own.

Obviously, many riots are quite consciously instigated. Certainly thousands of individuals, or millions of them, do not consciously decide to bring about a hurricane, or a flood or an earthquake, in the same manner. In the first place, on that level they do not believe such a thing possible. While conscious beliefs have a part to play in such cases, on an individual basis the “inner work” is done just as unconsciously as the body produces physical symptoms. The symptoms often seem to be inflicted upon the body, just as a natural disaster seems to be visited upon the body of the earth. Sudden illnesses are thought of as frightening and unpredictable, with the sufferer a victim, perhaps, of a virus. Sudden tornadoes or earthquakes are seen in the same light, as the result of air currents and temperature, or fault lines instead of viruses. The basic causes of both, however, are the same.

(Pause.) As mentioned earlier in this book, Ruburt and Joseph were both involved in a flood situation (in June, 1972), and so I will use that as a case in point and this specific area in particular, although the flood itself was much more far-reaching.

To one extent or another, these same problems existed in all areas (of the East Coast) that were directly involved with that particular flood.

(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 beliefs upon which these plans were based did not correlate, however, with the mass beliefs of the populace, and so the attempt failed. The program was based on precognitive knowledge of the flood event. The crusade never took place for the revivalist organization was frightened away by the flood.

(12:02.) Many in the religious community said that the flood was the will of God at that level, or that people were being punished for their transgressions. In its own way the flood was a religious event, for it united diverse groups of people — who did not always have the most humanistic of intents — with the community. In a strange way it also served to isolate certain portions of the people, and to highlight their predicament in a way that no riot could.

(Pause.) The hidden “illness” of the area was plain for everyone to see. People came from all around to help. For once comradeship ignored social structure. Taken-for-granted patterns of existence had been ripped away quite effectively in a day’s time. To one extent or another each individual involved saw himself in clear personal relationship with the nature of his life thus far, and sensed his kinship with the community. More than this, however, each human being felt the enduring energy of nature and was reminded, even in the seeming unpredictability of the flood, of the great permanent stability upon which normal life is based.

The flood therefore physically materialized the inner problems of the region, and at the same time released energies that had been trapped in hopelessness.

As a case in point, however, we will deal with Ruburt’s and Joseph’s experience with the flood situation, for their participation will have application to many others.

(Before I typed this material from my notes, Jane and I discussed whether we should supplement Seth’s rather generalized local data with specific names, dates, and events involving Elmira and Chemung County; this information would cover periods of at least several months before and after the flood of June 23, 1972. We decided it wasn’t necessary — Seth has already made his points sufficiently for this book.

(However, we think a thorough search for relationships between emotional states and the weather in our county would be most interesting. Questions of geographical limits, time, and money enter in, of course; but if the study was at all illuminating, it could be expanded to include the state of New York, for instance, then Pennsylvania — and finally the entire eastern seaboard of the United States. For Tropical Storm Agnes, which had led to the flooding, had been mammoth indeed.

(In connection with the flood material in this session and the next one, we refer the reader once again to the notes for the 613th session in Chapter One.)