“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Think of him as being simply “out of condition,” for that is indeed true. Your bodybuilders start of course from a better position, and yet many of them are quite puny. Because of their relative inadequacies they decide to overcompensate, seeking for an ideal that in certain terms can only be held for so long.

The reasons behind the condition, causing the condition, brought about the secondary group of mental habits. The bodybuilders look forward to their workouts, for they have a purpose in mind. Ruburt instead developed habits that discouraged him from using his body, except in certain ways. As much as possible, I would like Ruburt to remember these comparisons, for he is just becoming aware of certain habitual thoughts that accompany motion—walking, say, or getting up or down. With your help, he has tried to temper some of these.

A bodybuilder begins with certain weights that he can handle. He does not berate himself because he cannot yet achieve greater weights. As much as possible, then, think in terms of Ruburt not so much as having certain symptoms, but as being simply out of condition and trying to reestablish certain physical skills. Do not concentrate upon the lacks. This alteration of perspective can be of great help.

Try not to use the word “symptoms” in your pendulum work from now on. There are other ways, but the word has served its purpose. “Is my body out of condition because,” for example. There are endless other ways, but the change of focus as I have suggested will automatically bring a change in your questions. Always end your pendulum sessions with the new beliefs you want to instill, reinforcing whatever you have learned from that particular session. The idea of those pendulum sessions should not be to find out what is wrong, but to discover Ruburt’s feelings and beliefs, and to ascertain how they can be changed to bring about more favorable conditions.

In normal terms in life, while the conditions for life are given, the nature of physical time means that practically speaking life will be full of surprises, for in usual terms you do not know what will happen tomorrow. In that context people take “risks.” They set up prerogatives. They do not usually concentrate with the same intensity in all areas of their lives, so there is seldom what you might think of as any ideal balance. If your health is bad enough, of course, you will die. If you are poor enough, of course, you will starve, or freeze to death in the wintertime. If you are lonely enough you may go mad, as people do in isolation cells.

If this were not so, the subconscious would not only see to it that the body was in ordinary good health under any conditions, but it would automatically refuse to allow any individual to put its health in jeopardy.

It is imperative, however, that you make an effort not to think in terms of “the symptoms” any longer, but instead to think of ways that Ruburt can condition his body, realizing that he need not be at the mercy of old fears.