“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(As we were eating lunch today Jane said she thought Seth would discuss the question of good and evil, re our conversation on those subjects the other day. Before the session I showed her a copy of my dream for last Monday morning—one that had been so unpleasant that I’d avoided writing it down until after supper tonight. It’s on file in my notebook for August 7, 1978. In the dream I saw myself as a rather corpulent older individual wearing robes as they do in the Middle East; at an elaborate feast I watched mice being burned alive in a special gadget, before we skinned and ate their corpses. In the dream I swore off doing so ever again. The dream has stayed very vividly with me ever since I had it. Once I’d written it down, I saw that its subject matter fit in very well with the idea of good and evil, and told Jane I hoped Seth would use it in any discussion of his own.

Its workings entail cooperative ventures literally beyond your comprehension —ventures in which each life, and each detail of each life, has a purpose, a well-intended purpose, so that when it naturally seeks its own good it also increases the good of all.

You have been considering the nature of good and evil, and in your dream you presented yourself with a capsule demonstration. It is good to eat, and each creature seeks food. In the world of nature you say there is a hunter and prey, and yet in that natural world “hunter and prey” are peculiarly suited to each other. The hunter is naturally equipped to kill in such and such a manner. The prey is most easily killed by such maneuvers.

Despite all of your knowledge about the animals, it has not really been suspected that the natural hunter-animal kills most mercifully. The animals follow the rule of good intentions, in which unconsciously, in your terms, the good of one does serve the good of all.

To eat is good. To consume other creatures at your level of existence is natural. It is how the earth is replenished. To torture other creatures in the terms of this discussion is not at all “natural.” The animals, however, are embarked upon a different avenue than you. The development of tools gave man options in the way and manner of killing his prey.

Your dream was an excellent rendition, for here you have men unaware of the mouse’s dilemma to such an extent that it was beside the point—so taken for granted that it became invisible. The purpose to eat was good—well-intentioned. But the means were not those that would benefit all involved, for the mouse died no quick death.

The fire was supposed to burn away any disease, and mice were all too numerous. Acts which fit in with the good-intended universe, in which basically each life and detail, seeking its good, also works for the good of all others, bring forth what you call good acts—simple enough acts which are not well-intentioned in that light, toward the self or others “do not work right.” They are flawed, unpleasant. They bring pain, sorrow, or illness to the self or to others, and they are often called evil acts.

In your system of reality, the other creatures cannot help but act with good intent—even if their intent is to kill their prey. Because of many reasons given throughout the material, mankind took himself out of that context. Seemingly he gave up a certain identification with nature, and as a result he will finally come to appreciate it from an entirely different viewpoint.

(9:44.) He will learn to be consciously well-intentioned. Again, simple enough. He will consciously seek his own good – not at the expense of others, for he will realize that he cannot achieve any good in that manner. You cannot kill a chicken, personally now, and eat it comfortably. You certainly cannot kill a cow by yourselves. Indirectly, however, you know that the slaughterhouses are cruel—that animals are not killed quickly or cleanly, and to some extent the psychic disquiet of those animals is consumed with their meat. Animals killed quickly and cleanly make better food.

The gentle encouragement and the gentle stretching of the legs in his chair is excellent. They will gradually loosen and take his weight. And now after this weighty session I bid you a fond good evening—with the point that the eyes should show more improvement now as the neck ligaments are loosening.

End of session, and a fond good evening.