“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Nor do we want to rid him of one illness so quickly that he still feels a need for it, for in such a case he would indeed very promptly develop another. So, though he would wish that we go quickly, we shall go slowly, for the nature of his own reactions causes in some degree the necessity for the illness.

Here we have a blockage. The personality, the present ego, will not acquiesce to action, will not go along with it as part of it, but attempts to force it along its own directions. This will become clearer when passages concerning action and the ego are read.

The ego of the personality does not trust its own inner organisms. It must attempt to stand apart from them, and keep an eye on them. The ego does not believe that they are treating it right. The ego is therefore in its present circumstances because it fears itself so solitary, since it has to a large degree cut itself off from its inner self; yet not entirely, for the intuitive still speaks.

But this illness is not so accepted by the whole self, or by the deeper layers of the personality, although certain general tendencies from past lives have aided the personality to strike out physically against his own organism in such a manner.

This ego in particular, and many egos, consider that the self is the ego alone. The ego considers that therefore it must maintain stability and permanence. It therefore attempts to become rigid, because it considers itself the main representative of the self. It attempts to deny the inner emotions because the changeability of these emotions would seem to threaten its own permanence. It does not want to change. Therefore any seemingly small incident will tend to bring forth the explosion of these emotions quite against the ego’s inclination, precisely because the ego denies them so vehemently.

In other words the apparent intensity of the egotistical reactions is a sham on the part of the ego, to hide the fact that it refuses to become involved with action as a whole, because it fears for its permanence. When the ego understands, and it will, that it is a portion of the whole self, and itself a part of action, then indeed it will not fear for its own permanence, for it will realize that being a part of action, its very nature is dependent upon change, and vitality, and value fulfillment.

One more point. The ulcer for example has reality upon many levels, and must be dealt with in a like manner, for it is not enough to handle it even from the viewpoint of the present ego; for indeed causes are involved of which the present ego must necessarily be mainly ignorant. The inner self however has at its command all these reasonings, and all these causes.

However, we have among us this evening indeed a secondary personality, a strong and savage one. We have here this evening a secondary personality that attempts to rule the complete life of the personality of whom we have been speaking, and its name is ulcer. For where lies the difference? The personality literally lives its life about the existence of the ulcer. It is hardly worth it, for the personality must be led to see that it itself has created the ulcer, both psychologically and physically, in most actual terms, and that it itself can indeed cast it out.

It begins to travel down safe paths, and out of fear it continually enlarges the scope of limitations. In the particular personality’s case, perception becomes also limited, and rejections occur. In this as in many such cases foods are rejected. In many such cases the ego itself chooses to perceive only within those areas where it feels safe, and it rejects more and more any involvement that it can avoid. And now the ego has the self-created ulcer to blame, and it rejects many foods, for foods are symbolistic of involvement.

I am an educator, and I have been one in various respects for perhaps more centuries than I am willing to admit, and I do not believe in giving easy solutions, for they are worthless. The direct experience in this procedure will indeed be your own, and because it is your own it will bear fruit.

There is more that I will say along these lines, as you wish. You may again at your convenience end the session, or take a break. I am indeed fond of you both, and if I behave in my own fashion it is because my experience directs me, that solutions must come from within, for problems come from within. Very easily, through suggestion, I could cure, so it would seem, your ulcer.