“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

What beliefs do you have to change?

(9:40.) You have built up the idea of free time being wrong, sinful, no matter what you tell yourself about wanting more of it. That is one thing. Deeper, however, is the fact that the belief in an unsafe universe sets up certain habits of resistance, and more practically, of self-protection. The resistance is protective. It shows itself in fears that seem perfectly realistic, and indeed highly practical—the feeling itself is not let go of easily, for you and others rely upon it. It is a state of alarm and readiness. You are so used to feeling unsafe that you consider alarm of one kind or another as a realistic approach to life.

When you begin to realize that you do indeed live in a safe universe, these patterns of reaction begin to break up. To some extent however as they do you can feel weaponless, or unprotected. Then you read the newspaper and you see that New York City is in great financial difficulty. In a certain way this is almost reassuring, because it correlates with the old habitual belief system that says “Aha, yes, there is a threat. I was right all along.” Thus the older beliefs momentarily feel their old unity, and it is, again, realistic behavior to feel yourself also threatened.

(To me:) Your symptoms have been reassuring to the portion of you that habitually followed the old line of thinking. The reasoning falls thusly: “Everything is going well. The books are selling. Ruburt is definitely improving. With so much right, something must go wrong, or things would not go right,” meaning realistic. Beside this the dis-ease serves to protect you from the frightening “fear” that if everything goes well something must be wrong, because in an unsafe universe that is a belief. So you provide a “little” wrong to preserve the larger good.

Your ideas of time however are detrimental. They were formed in line with the old beliefs, and so of course that seemed utterly appropriate. In some important areas, however, your own beliefs have changed lately.

There, you have made some good strides. Your good strides there, however, led to your momentary-enough concern with New York City’s economic fate. Your beliefs in the safe universe are spreading. That is why you used the symptoms “just in case.” In the unsafe universe, however, you—not you alone—believe that something good will be fought over. The books prove their merit in that reality, because they are fought over to whatever degree.

John can be assured of their worth, then, and so can Prentice and so can you. At the same time the so-called conflict is also a result of your new beliefs—but taking the form of events that seemingly make sense to all of you.

In your world, however, and according to your beliefs, some “realistic” events had to prove out the practicality of the safe universe in publishing terms —so you have a creative conflict.

Now about Pocket Books. Interesting and amusing. The woman there (Pat Golbitz) picked up all of your own negative ideas—yours and Ruburt’s—about Fell and Prentice, and aimed them at John (Nelson). This confirmed John’s belief that he is not understood. He would not feel it safe to be understood in an unsafe world.

You form your private and joint reality. Those beliefs of your own that went underground, so to speak, must be altered. I have mentioned the important ones this evening. Time works with you, not against you. Underline 4 times.

The symptoms are really minimal. To some extent however they represent the weight of your own beliefs that Ruburt added to his own symptoms. He refuses to bear that weight any longer. There is no doubt that he worries about them. Yet he is determined to be free. Your work with the pendulum, again, is important, for it assures him that you believe enough in a safe universe to encourage his freedom, and your own.

Your own will appear in a burst of greater creative freedom. You did not have symptoms in the past—and now they are minimal. Your belief in an unsafe universe however was reflected in a dampening of your creative abilities in contrast to what you can produce. As your beliefs change completely, as they are, you will then experience a far greater creative freedom and release from the tyranny of time that those beliefs brought about.

Again, there is nothing wrong with you physically. Given your beliefs, the period is a “more or less natural” transitory stage that is meant to bring out those beliefs, so that they do not remain invisible, or as blocks, preventing you from entry into the safe universe.

What he terms “heroic impulses” were impeded because of his beliefs, and the whole concept will become much clearer to him in the very near future. He will become quicker in his motion at all levels. Certain necessary developments are taking place that will appear in Politics, and they are developments that will now be within his reach.