“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

They can be of benefit along certain lines. The validity of their information may be excellent. On the other hand, it may be less than trustworthy at times, simply because their achievement level is not high. If they err, they do so through ignorance.

These fears do not belong to what you think of as the subconscious. Then these materializations of panic and pain play about the physical body, projected by the ego, and steal the powers of the subconscious mind from their natural constructive tasks.… In other words, the ego becomes a tool to disrupt rather than to create.

Your own subconscious is the fountain of your individuality and personality; from it springs your talent. When the ego becomes too concerned with daily matters, with worry, then it becomes far less effective. The freely working subconscious — or the inner you — is completely capable of taking care of all practical considerations and will use the ego as a tool to do so.

Dissociation puts the power back where it belongs. Daily methods of dissociation are extremely practical. … You will notice within a few weeks’ time an added energy. So-called impulses on your part are often blocked because you do not consider them practical. But the subconscious knows its own meat and its own sauce and the best means for its nourishment.

Begin the yoga exercises and follow them faithfully. Your few experiments with autosuggestion upon falling asleep have been ego-bound. Think of this in terms of muscle-bound, and you will see what I mean. Be in a drowsy state and suggest, Ruburt, suggest — suggest, Joseph. Do not attempt to bully or command the subconscious. Joseph, if you are uncomfortable, I suggest you move to your sturdy old rocker.

The particular atmosphere surrounding your personalities just prior to the animals’ deaths was short-circuited and filled with inner panics. I do not want to hurt your feelings. This is, I’m sorry to say, a natural occurence often on your plane. The fact is that the animals caught your emotional contagion and, according to their own abilities, translated it for themselves.

Your dog’s illness was incipient. You could not have maintained his health for many years in any case. I would like to make it clear that animals do have energy to maintain their own health, but this is reinforced as a rule by the vitality of the human beings to whom they may be emotionally attached. The fact is that you were unable to give your dog the added vitality at a time when he needed it most. There is no need to blame yourselves. It was beyond your control at your stage of development then.

Following Seth’s suggestions, Rob began doing a few simple yoga exercises, and the night before the eighteenth session he used self-hypnosis to relax his muscles. The results were so immediate and excellent, and Rob was so limp when he finished, that both of us were amused. He looked so like a before-and-after advertisement. Before he began the exercises, he was very uptight, with sore muscles and a repressive body pose. Afterward, he was like some happy rag doll. Seth began to comment on this in the beginning of the next session. As usual, he used our personal experience as a basis for some excellent information with great general application.

At times, the ego can hold you in a tight vice, which the dissociation breaks. This is what happened after your exercises. You have been doing very well … in allowing yourself psychic freedom. However, conscious fears cause the ego to tighten its grasp, and some effects of this nature were starting up. This is why I suggested the exercises at this time.

The tree makes adjustments just as you do. It listens to its growth up from the earth and to the murmer of the growth of its roots beneath. It adjusts each root ending according to what impediments might lie in its way. Without the conscious mind of man it nevertheless retains this inner consciousness of all its parts, above and below the ground, and manipulates them constantly.

If you remember what you know of the trance state — in a light trance, you are able to maintain awareness of self, your environment and your place in it. You simply behave somewhat differently, not bestirring yourself in any direction unless the suggestion to do so has been given. The awareness of plant life lies along these lines.

The idea of dissociation could be likened to the slight distance between the bark and the inside of the tree. Here we do not have a rigid bark, as you should not have a rigid ego. We have instead a flexible bark, changing with the elements, protecting the inner tree (or inner self), but flexible, opening or closing in rhythmic motion. …

At times, Joseph, you have not trusted your ego’s ability to protect you. … You have forced it into anxiety so that it overcompensated, trying to protect you, and ended up half choking you to death. Do you want to sit in the rocker?

“Do you realize that the entire session contained more psychological insight into me and more hints into my behavior than I’ve ever received in any way whatsoever? And that Seth just used me as an example to make more general pertinent points about the personality?” Rob grinned. “If it didn’t bother me, I don’t know why it’s bothering you.”