“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane has been using her twenty-minute psychological time period recently for health purposes, with excellent results. For a related specific incident, see the description of her dentist episode in the 152nd session. She has also been attaining excellent “states” during her psy-time periods. Again, she keeps records.

This situation can be serious in varying degrees, according to the impetus and intensity of the original propelling cause behind the impeding action. If the impetus is a powerful one, then the impeding action will be of more serious nature, blocking up large reserves of energy for its own purposes. It obviously becomes part of the personality-psychological structure, the physical structure, the electrical and chemical structure, invading to some extent even the dream universe.

It is, momentarily, literally accepted by the personality as a part of the self, and here lies its danger. It is not just symbolically accepted, and I am not speaking in symbolic terms. The impeding action, as seen in an illness for example, is quite literally accepted by the personality structure, and by all corresponding systems, as a portion of the self. Once this occurs, a conflict instantly develops. The self does not want to give up a portion of itself, even while that portion may be painful or disadvantageous. There are many psychological reasons behind such a psychological truth.

For one thing, while pain is unpleasant it is also a method of familiarizing the self against the edges of quickened consciousness. Any heightened sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, has a stimulating effect upon a consciousness to some degree. It is a strong awareness of activity and life. Where the stimulus may be extremely annoying, and humiliatingly unpleasant, certain portions of the psychological framework accept it indiscriminatingly because it is a sensation, and a vivid one. This acquiescence to even painful stimuli is a basic part of the nature of consciousness, and a necessary one.

Indeed, oftentimes they serve to preserve the integrity of the whole psychological system, and to point out the existence of inner problems. Often they serve temporary functions, leading the personality from other more severe areas of difficulty. I am not here saying that all illness is good. I am saying that illness is a portion of the action of which any personality is composed, and therefore it is purposeful, and cannot be considered as an alien force that attacks the personality from without.

—this is not meant to imply any negation of psychological or psychic values, although these are also actions.