“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now, to return to an earlier discussion. What you call suggestion is indeed expectation. You should understand by now how the physical image is constructed. This construction is from the inside out. The inner self attempts to construct a physical image in line with its own self-image. Any errors of construction have their origin not in the inner self, but in either the personal subconscious or in the ego.

The same sort of distortion occurs on another scale, in the duplication of any given illness or destructive organic or gross misfunctions. What you call suggestion should ideally come from within the self, and not from outside the self.

I suggest your first break.

Suggestion would of course play a part in the development of these abilities. It is difficult, even though we are so far into our sessions, to give you any full understanding yet of what is involved in the basic nature of suggestion, but as we go deeper into the subject there will be experiments that you both can try.

I have often mentioned that the divisions in our subject matter are often arbitrary, and for practical purposes of discussion only. The word suggestion is in itself so bound in your minds with other matters that even I find it difficult not to let the subject matter become suggestive of matters that do not really belong under discussion.

You think for example in terms of good and bad suggestions, and I have on occasion used the terms myself, in order to make a point clear. However what you call suggestion, left alone, is a part of the inner impetus of action, which is translated in all areas of consciousness outward.

What interrupts this inner impetus could be compared to what you call poor suggestion. It is indeed distortive. It represents a blocking of impetus. It interrupts what should be a simultaneous and easy flow of inner impetus outward, in your case outward to physical construction. The particular negative words spoken or thought are but indications of this break of impetus. The break occurs first, and it is for this reason that what you call negative suggestions therefore are acted upon.

The negative suggestions therefore are symptoms of an inner block of energy and impetus. They represent a rift that has already occurred. It is rather important that I make this point clear. It goes without saying that these which you call negative suggestions are in themselves actions. They represent however dead eddies, the motion that means nothing in dead waters. They are impeding actions.

What you call a negative suggestion is never acted upon unless the inner block of energies has already occurred. Suggestion, as I understand it, is the culmination of the inner voice that urges action into ever more diverse and creative patterns.

We will have much to say concerning impediments; and impediments, incidentally, are what you call negative suggestions. And yet remember that these impediments are themselves action.

I now suggest your break.

What you choose to call suggestion operates unceasingly within all aspects of action.

It is this that allows the body its physical manifestation. It is this that allows for all change. It can be called on one level instinct, on other levels it is much more. When it operates at its most efficient level suggestion is indeed the inner affirmation. Without the ego we do not have what you call negative suggestions, for when action is left to itself it flows unimpeded, seeking its fulfillment along its numberless unimpeded ways.

What you call negative suggestions represent discordant actions. Unless the main reasons are discovered, the distortive actions will keep reoccurring. In many cases quite a simple exercise will almost immediately begin to make an improvement. With these exercises you are familiar, for in your psychological time the self is momentarily in connection with its more extensive portions.

A clear and undiverted and unbroken electrical circuit and connection is hereby made. Growth within the physical system is the result of suggestion. Without it there would be no growth. You will see here that we are beginning our discussion in the simplest of terms, and we will lead further so that eventually suggestion can be understood for what it is.

It goes without saying that each newborn consciousness within your system carries within it the capsule comprehension of which I have previously spoken; and if you recall, each atom and molecule, each and every smallest particle that can by any stretch of the imagination be called physical matter, contains within it its own independent capsule comprehension—inherent suggestions in coded form, in not one but several codes, that give complete instructions for development and growth.

You recall, I am sure, the material concerning the gestalt of the physical body. Here suggestion constantly plays its part in the formation of the tissues, and in all other such areas of development and growth. There are various manners in which these inner suggestions are translated from inner pure energy form into the electrical and chemical systems which compose the physical organisms, and it is possible for errors of translation to occur along these lines.

Until we had discussed action to some degree, a discussion on suggestion would have meant little to you. We will continue along these lines for some time, even while the subject leads us into others.

Since suggestion is used constantly, and by every cell in your body, then it is not a question of whether or not you can use suggestion, but of how to use it more effectively. And this will involve a balanced personality, for in such a personality action will be allowed freedom of expression. The ego will gain and not lose in the process, but we will not have an autocratic and willful ego, but a reasonable and even disciplined ego that is aware of its position, aware of its own dependency, as well as of its own peculiar and unique perceptive apartness. For the apartness is dependent upon its being a part of the whole gestalt.