“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

When we have gone into the nature of action still much more thoroughly, then you will be able to use such knowledge for quite practical purposes, and to your advantage. For as you know, you do not perceive all aspects of action by any means, and it can indeed to some extent be up to you to choose those aspects of action with which you will be concerned, and those which you would ignore.

This in no manner affects the nature of those actions which you ignore. However, to all intents and purposes it changes action in so far as you are concerned with it. This would therefore imply a choice on your part, in a manner that you do not now enjoy. For you can then choose to perceive advantageous action, as well as you can choose not to perceive action which for any reason or another you choose to ignore.

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.

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.

Many, many occasions arise when action could be so impeded, and is not.

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.

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.

Your own experiments in psychological time have allowed you, to some extent, to experience within yourselves such unimpeded action. You know now that the ego, because of its nature, attempts to set itself aside from action. It obviously cannot do so. The ego, being part of action, nevertheless affects the nature of action as seen in the various manifestations of the whole self.

The personal subconscious can be thought of as a threshold between the ego and the inner self; not only can glimmerings of the inner self be glimpsed through the subconscious, but also the diverse characteristics of the ego touch this personal subconscious. When the ego, therefore, becomes too overbearing it attempts to impede the flow of action. It cannot so impede action directly, for the very act of forming such impediments involves action. Nevertheless such impediments often set up actions that block the overall movement or direction of the action that composes the whole personality.

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.

Recall here also the cooperation that exists between the smallest particles and the cells and organs. Each molecule has its own self-image, without which it could not exist as a physical construction. The subconscious has its own self- image, the ego has its own self-image. When action is allowed to flow unimpeded, the cooperation that is necessary to maintain the efficiency of the gestalt is maintained. It is most frequently the error of the ego, who upon many occasions attempts to deny its dependency upon this cooperation, that sets up impediments, and sets up countersuggestions that can be somewhat considered cancerous, in that if it had its way the ego would envelop all other aspects of the whole organism, and run riot.

It will refuse to assimilate certain experiences. This very refusal is in itself an action. It will attempt to construct itself on a physical level, since it is within the physical system of reality. The cooperation is broken down to some greater or lesser degree. This conflicts with the inner data in the case of illnesses, and the illnesses are actually the result of conflicts of data. It is obvious that the body is equipped to handle many such distorted actions, but a conflict is hereby brought into play, where constructive energies or actions are not given full reign, and patterns of distortions are set up within the system.

If they cannot be overwhelmed they are assimilated, and faithfully reproduced. There are methods whereby you can indeed help your own system, and to a large measure determine the constructive nature of action as it operates within the system, and protect the organism from such distortions before they occur.

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.

We find it most frequently that the ego impedes action by refusals. It attempts to maintain a stability that is indeed illusion. The emotions, as you know, are action. When they are allowed their mobility, then they free the personality from resistances. They actually allow for great stability, since their free expression makes it possible for action to be fulfilled in the manner most constructive for the system as a whole.

When the ego impedes such expression, then the emotions are translated into other actions, and can turn into impediments. It is only because the ego blocks freedom of the emotional expression, out of fear, that it appears to the ego that emotions are indeed fearful characteristics. Dammed up, they are indeed.

I believe that I have kept you long enough for one evening, and I will here close our session. My fondest regards to you both, and until you master some of the rules for recognizing or ignoring certain portions of action, you can always stuff your ears with cotton.