“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(To John:) You do not feel free to move. Symbolically you do not feel that you have freedom of motion, and you are expressing this through the body mechanism. You did indeed shake yourself up when you decided to put your smoking aside, but this was simply because you felt subconsciously a loss. The smoking to some extent had been used by you as a method of giving yourself comfort, a way of giving yourself pleasure.

All feelings are reflected in the body. It showed in your gestures and in the way you walked. Some muscles were habitually tensed, and the balance thrown off. Not until this had gone on for some time did the symptoms become severe enough to get your attention. They are trying to tell you something.

This was reflected in other portions of the body as well. As you noted, you felt off balance subjectively, and unsure. Now. You had grown used to smoking as a way of comforting yourself. You removed the comfort. You refused to add another, and at the same time you did not face the inner problem that was bothering you, that made the comfort so necessary to begin with. We will go into this more deeply, for you can indeed rid yourself of the symptoms, but I would like to make one point here first. When you bought the dog, subconsciously you felt that the dog was almost a symbol of your failure.

Now. (To John:) I have told you that you formed your own physical body and your own image.

Now when anything is wrong with your body, it is trying to tell you something. And when you understand what it is trying to say, and if you make an effort to do what is needed, the symptoms are no longer needed as a method of communication.

The body is trying to tell you that you have a problem, and because you did not cope with it, and denied it mentally, it is physically materialized in symbolic body language. Now give us a moment. (Pause.)

Now I am speaking of failure as it would apply to you, in your estimation. All of these attitudes were reflected in the body.

You do have full freedom to move, both physically and in the economic world. You allowed negative patterns of thought to take an upper hand, and fears to predominate. These fears were then symbolically acted out by the body. You do have freedom in your joints, for example. I will try to put this simply.

I do not suggest that this be kept up for any length of time, at a steady rate. The cortisone itself to some extent becomes habitual. Now not habit forming, but habitual. You can prevent this if you cease taking it now and then for several days. It can hold you over but at the same time the body is getting used to a more or less artificial element; element not in terms of chemical. The cortisone is somewhat, say, like a crutch. Do not become addicted to that.

Now I want you to mentally talk to the portions of your body that hurt you. You do this whether you now it or not, but you have been saying the wrong things. Tell your feet that you free them. They can step forward.

Give us a moment. (Pause.) The illness has not been thrust upon you, and this is your freedom. Since you have done this to your body, you can stop doing it. Try to become more alert to your own stream of consciousness. Notice when you are giving yourself negative suggestions.