“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now. Finally Ruburt discovered for himself, this morning precisely, his basic problem—the problem that eventually everyone must face.

He knows it now in the only real way it can be known. You learned it some time ago, and he knew it intellectually. He did not understand however that fear is not practical. I am speaking of course generally, and of anticipatory fear, not the fear, quite healthy, with which a man faces a ferocious beast.

Our poor results in the last experimental data were directly the result of the fear which he finally faced. Fear under normal circumstances is immobilizing, as he most certainly now realizes.

The symbolic journey of the spirit, and the finding finally of the self always involves the journey of the self through fear, and its emergence. To the extent that this journey is faced, the greater the perils, but the greater the rewards.

Fear cannot be ignored. It must be faced and conquered. It always leads to retreat when it is not faced. The physical image is indeed a replica in many ways of the inner self. When a man is ill it is not necessarily because he wants to be ill subconsciously. It is not necessarily because he is receiving some hidden psychological benefit, or because the illness fulfills some need. He is ill often—always in fact—because of a distortion that is occurring within the self, and materialized in physical form.

You and I were quite right in advising Ruburt to face this through without the treatment of a doctor or chiropractor. I (Jane pointed to herself) you see, would not necessarily give this same advice to someone else. He was on several occasions about ready to visit your Piper. (The chiropractor.) I wanted him to face the symptoms for what they were, and to find the cause. Apparent causes came and went, and would continue to do so had he not—with, my friend, your help and mine—found the master cause.