“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

When it accepts an illness as a part of its own self-image, then the illness becomes an actual part of the reality that is the self. The personality must therefore be considered as a biological reality. It must also be considered as an electrical reality, as a psychological reality, for any experience is automatically translated into all these systems.

I would suggest that our friend with the ulcer read our last two previous sessions, for this will bring home to him the fact that he does indeed, literally, consider his ulcer as much a part of himself as an arm or a leg. He considers the ulcer, in fact, more real and necessary than an arm or a leg, since his whole life now revolves about this illness.

In such a case the whole personality structure adopts such an illness as a new unifying principle, about which life activities are then centered. That man, for all his seeming outwardness, fears to relate himself in a basic manner toward the outside environment.

We will for the purposes of our discussion ignore, for now, certain aspects in Philip’s personality, such as a deep secrecy which is indeed based on fear, because this characteristic and others will not help us progress in our particular subject matter. We will instead content ourselves with a comparison of the two personalities in regard to certain characteristic reactions, which tend to lead the personalities toward health or illness.