“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Both of you, remembering the article you read this evening (about Picasso), should keep in mind the immense energies of the inner self to solve such problems, to set the personality aright, and literally get it back on its feet. I have said this often, yet I cannot overemphasize it: Emphasis should not be upon the problem but upon its solution.

Not upon reversing symptoms but upon the desired results. Not what is wrong but what is right, and how a greater degree of “rightness” can be achieved. This is of utmost importance.

But the search for health should be concentrated upon—not the state of ill health at any time. When you concentrate upon the symptoms you often then forget the abilities of the inner self and the vast reservoir of help available. You close it off because you are concentrating upon the opposite direction.

There is a definite time period involved, and your own remark only shows that what I said earlier is correct. Both of you must believe that he is to completely recover. It is most important that Ruburt believe this, but extremely helpful if you will.

(“But I don’t see any signs that he believes it.”)

He can do this by concentrating on his book, getting out more. Now these sound like very simple procedures, but they are the ones that work. He had some difficulty because of the childhood experience of seeing his mother ill for so long. (Long pause.)

—regardless of what you think of them. Your thoughts and imaginations do cause your activities. Your negative attitudes also help continue the symptoms, as do his. The physical facts of going down the stairs sideways existed first in imagination, and were materialized. You need not deny the physical fact, but if you understand what causes physical facts then you change the direction of your imagination, thought and expectations in order that the following future facts will not be like the ones that so displeased you.

I am not telling either of you to ignore a physical fact, but to avoid habitual, often unthinking negative suggestions that might prolong it. This is an important point, and Ruburt would not have let me speak about it earlier. Now take your break.

“Of course I can get up,” or even “To hell with it, I can get up,” will work far better, but without a constant eye out to check that the suggestion take place immediately.

He must not immediately try to check out the results, but have faith that they will come. If he says, now, “I can get up easily,” and then he does not in the next instant, then he thinks he is faced with a new failure.

—but you made some leeway with Ruburt in your last remarks (which I’ve forgotten as I type this) and I would like him to examine his normal habits in the light of what I said about his table and arrangements. Do you follow me?