“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Your own choice will dictate the way you die, as well as the time. We are dealing now with your beliefs as you know them in this life, and leaving for a later chapter any bleed-throughs of beliefs that may occur from other existences. But whatever beliefs you accept, for whatever reasons, your point of power is in the present.

It is far more important that you understand this than that you become overly concerned with labyrinthian “past reasons,” for you can get so lost in a negative approach that you forget that these beliefs can be changed in the present. For various reasons, you hold beliefs that you can alter at any time. Many individuals die young, for example, because they believe so strongly that old age represents a degradation of the spirit and an insult to the body. They do not want to live under the conditions as they believe them to be. Some quite frankly prefer to die in what others would consider to be the most dire circumstances — swept away by the raging waves of an ocean, or crushed in an earthquake, or battered by the winds of a hurricane.

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.

(10:27.) There are as many reasons then for “earth illnesses” as there are for body illnesses. To some extent the same can be said of wars, if you consider a war as a small infection; in the case of a world war, it would be a massive disease. War will finally teach you to revere life. Natural catastrophes will remind you that you cannot ignore your planet or your creaturehood. At the same time such experiences themselves provide contact with the deepest energies of your being — even when they are being used “destructively.”

(11:29.) There was some racial tension, hints of impending riots that did not occur. A very capable mayor who had been in office for some time was defeated. Politics entered in, for many reasons not necessary to this discussion. Politically oriented people felt that they had no really strong hold, so that effective communication with the federal government could not be expected. In that area a sense of powerlessness grew.

Culturally the region did not have its own identity, though it has always striven for some kind of characteristic expression. It saw government funds go past it to other sectors more economically depressed. The people had individual dreams and hopes, and en masse these represented a regional vision of improvement at many levels. At the same time feelings of discouragement grew. The young and the old, the conventional and the unconventional, had small skirmishes, where some of the city fathers objected to the long-haired youths in a city park — quite trivial incidents, and yet indicative of splits of values and misunderstandings between the generations.

Some time earlier, local religious organizations had made plans for a mass revival. Followers of a popular religious group were signed up and some considerable publicity given for the event. Again, this was not accidental. It was an attempt on the part of fundamental denominations to solve the problems at another level, through an influx of religious identification, conversion, and enthusiasm.

(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.

(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.