“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

We also of course experimented to some degree with Ruburt’s state. He carried on for me very well, and his abilities have once more shown a good degree of advancement. I tried again to speak with you on a much less formal basis. To some extent there must always be some barriers here, but we can with practice overcome many.

The man is using his own energies less effectively, since so much of them are being consumed in nervousness. He has not learned to conserve his energies, but to use them at all it seems that he must allow them almost to explode, so that there is little reserve. This is unfortunate, but can be corrected.

I did indeed wish to experiment, though not on a spectacular basis, along the lines that we are using this evening. I now and then enjoy sitting at a comfortable table with you, with his eyes open, and it is good training for Ruburt.

We may not expand this program this evening. When we do he will see that only good can come from it. It will not involve medicines or drugs. It will involve perhaps more than anything else the task of slowly changing the focus of his attention and energies, of turning energies that are being used in a self-destructive manner into constructive channels.

There will also be suggestions given as to needed adjustments on the part of the personality during his business hours. In other words, there are small but important adjustments that can be made within the framework of his present working life. Also perhaps an adjustment here on the woman’s part that will aid him.

I am going into this because the problem has obviously become an organic one. As a beginning I would suggest that your friend read our material concerning the formation of physical matter in general, the formation of the physical image, and the physical organs. If he can see that he is indeed responsible for the condition of his physical body in the most practical manner possible, then it will be much easier for him to picture his own cure.

I am going to take this instance of your friend’s illness however to make a few points of my own, some that may not be too well received. A cure of any kind will never depend upon any given treatment. It will in all cases depend upon the belief on the part of the sufferer that he can be cured. It will depend upon his desire to be cured. It will depend upon the strength of the purpose that an illness serves. It will depend upon, in the last analysis, the individual’s own ability to mobilize his own energies, for only these will effect a cure.

Any physician of any kind can only help a sufferer mobilize these energies and direct them. A sufferer has adopted an illness into his own self-image, through suggestion, which to a large degree he himself has given. He has caused the illness, whether it be organic or otherwise, and only suggestion will rid him of it.

It is indeed quite time for us to discuss the true nature and reality of what is so loosely called suggestion. We have indeed spoken much concerning the focus of energy, and a sufferer is truly entranced with the idea of his illness, and it is only this which basically allows the illness to continue. He focuses upon it both consciously and unconsciously.

An illness is a failure to solve a mental or psychological problem in the correct manner. As long as the illness continues the problem remains unsolved, and a vicious circle is maintained because of this unwholesome balance. The sufferer focuses upon the illness, therefore avoiding his task of functioning upon the problem.

This first attempt to discover the problem, automatically and because of its nature, immediately aids the sufferer in changing the focus of his attention away from the symptom, which he has himself formed, and already the symptom is weaker.

The trouble with many health programs for recovery is that they cause the sufferer to focus upon his illness more than ever. The unsolved problem is therefore pushed further away. Our program for your friend will almost immediately include a brief but effective suggestion that should be given before sleep, and at various times during the day.

Our focus of energy is vital, both yours and mine. Expectation to a large extent determines the manner in which we will use this energy, and the types of constructions that will be formed. Your friend’s ulcer for example is his problem in its entirety, constructed into the physical matter of his own organism.