“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.

It was no coincidence, however, that you plunged into reading the New York papers during your stay in bed. Not that it is intended that you should close your eyes to world events, but that in your particular case there are times when, to you, such concentration upon world evils becomes extremely unwholesome.

(I spent eight or nine days in bed, the victim of what is generally called a virus. At no time however did I blame a virus, feeling that the real cause was psychic, thus permitting the virus to come to the fore. I was somewhat embarrassed at having “goofed” psychically. As time passed, and while I pored over several daily New York City newspapers plus Elmira’s daily paper, I came to realize to a small extent that poor expectations on my part had much to do with my falling ill.

(I finally reached the point where I told Jane, the day before this session was due, that I had decided to stop reading the New York papers so thoroughly. I found it a sad experience to read about the race situation, Viet Nam, the conditions of life and crime in New York City, etc., although of course I realized that much of this news meant something was being done about some urgent problems.

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.