“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Objects are the symbols.

You usually think of them simply as realities. You think of thoughts, images, and dreams sometimes as being symbolic of other things, but the truth is that physical objects are themselves symbols. They are the exterior symbols that stand for inner experience.

There are, therefore, mass physical symbols upon which you all agree, as well as private, personal symbols.

The whole nature and structure of physical life as you know it, is a symbolic statement made by groups of entities who choose to work with physical symbolism. So the body is a symbol for what you are, or what you think you are — and these may be two different things indeed.

Any physical ailment is symbolic of an inner reality or statement. Your entire life is a statement in physical terms, written upon time as you understand it.

New paragraph. (Very quietly): Once you understand the symbolic nature of physical reality, then you will no longer feel entrapped by it. You have formed the symbols, and therefore you can change them. You must learn, of course, what the various symbols mean in your own life, and how to translate their meaning.

To do so, you must first of all remind yourself frequently that the physical condition is symbolic — not a permanent condition. Then you must look within yourself for the inner actuality represented by the symbol. This same process can be followed regardless of the nature of the problem, or of your challenge.

(9:50.) Your intimate physical environment is, therefore, a symbolic statement of an inner situation. The inner situation is a fluid one, for you are always in a state of becoming. Left alone, you will automatically translate the freely moving, spontaneous inner events into physical reality, therefore altering your environment and changing the symbols.

Many of the ideas given in this book can be used most advantageously to solve personal problems. If these concepts are understood, then the individual should realize the freedom he has to operate purposefully within the structure of physical life. Many of you are so used to looking outward — and accepting the physical world as the criterion for reality — that it has not occurred to you to look within. The entire framework of your existence, therefore, is constantly flowing from within outward, and being projected into those physical symbols that you mistake, then, for reality.

To some other types of consciousness, your physical reality is clearly understood in its symbolic form. Objects, as symbols, help construct the very framework of your existence. They, the objects, can then be manipulated quite freely.

Now: Many of the experiences that Ruburt has during our sessions he cannot recall afterward. As physical objects are symbols, existing as realities within certain frequencies, so there are other realities, of course, at different frequencies; but here objects are not the main symbols.

Now: I am going to end the session shortly. It was, of course, no coincidence that our friend came here this evening. Besides giving you necessary information for the Appendix, some of the information given on objects and symbolism definitely applied to Sue.

As Ruburt said after reading the body of the book, the interior drama is the “real” one. Christ became the Crucified, Judas became the betrayer, though Christ was not crucified and Judas did not betray him. The reality, therefore, was in the myth. The reality was the myth. In such cases the interior events will always predominate, regardless of the physical facts, which are only symbols for those events.