“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The basic source of your difficulty was not new. It did not even, except superficially, represent a dangerous lapse or relapse on your part, into those truly dangerous and quite disastrous negative battles of thoughts, which eventually in any individual can and often do lead the integrated self into annihilation.

The illness did represent, however, a needed warning, materialized into physical reality as illness. A warning that after all there had been a recent tendency on your part, though slight, to slide into negative thinking. The illness was meant to bring you up short, to make you think.

However it is your duty, and the duty of every individual insofar as it is within his power, to maintain his own psychic health and vitality; according to the strength of this vitality he will protect himself and others. Negative expectations, far from protecting either the individual or those with whom he comes in contact, will actually, to a greater or lesser degree, turn as destructive as any epidemic.

(For some other examples of the psychic power of negative expectations, see the 9th, 15th and 17th sessions, involving Jane and me at York Beach, Maine. Also see the 17th and 66th sessions for material on the death of our dog, Mischa.

Note: The attitude was partially justified, but the portion that was not justified was a symptom of a new appearance of negative thought on your part. And because such negativism is a psychic problem to you, it was potentially dangerous.

His nature is independent, but the independence is blunted when he is not sure of what he is dealing with. You felt his reaction to your attitude strongly, and you should have questioned yourself at that point. Ruburt was able to counteract the temporary but overall negative storm by his own creative energies, and focus strongly to protect you both.

(Jane had told me that during my illness she hadn’t felt Seth around. There were times during my illness when I had an actual feeling of disbelief at the steady parade of visitors. I did not see them all. I soon became aware that I felt better after talking to the ones I did see, and once I realized this I rather deliberately tried to capitalize upon this apparent exchange of energy. Sonja Carlson visited us twice; almost at once I understood the negative character of her thoughts, and decided not to let it bother me. I was concerned about Jane bearing the brunt of this, however.)