“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The outside-attuned consciousness, however, is almost dependent upon exterior stimuli for its sense of life and enjoyment. I do not want to oversimplify, yet such a type of consciousness is far more interested in exploring the nature of itself as it relates to exterior conditions or circumstances. It becomes, relatively now, opaque to subjective personal conditions, since it has no secure exterior framework against which the inner condition can be judged.

I do not want to set up polarities. I do want to give you some background, however, for some of your attitudes. From childhood in your society, you were as children told in one way or another that it was healthy to enjoy sports and outside activity, to join in games, to be outgoing with playmates, and all of that is of course quite true. Children are also taught, however, that reading for anything but short periods was somehow unhealthy, that daydreaming or staying alone for anything but a brief period meant that the child was withdrawn, and that his activities—or hers—were somehow unnatural.

Many men and women in the same fashion, who do not fit the conventional sexual frameworks, take stands in the same way. A man may decide he wants to be a homosexual because he cannot fit into the usual pattern. There is obviously, however, no contradiction between habits of subjective thought and creativity and the physical enjoyment of the body and its abilities.

(10:05.) I do not want to duplicate material. At one time, however, you briefly curtailed physical activity for what you considered the sake of your subjective freedom. You quickly dismissed that idea after a taste of it. Ruburt accepted that idea, believing he must make a choice. All of this, you see, must be considered in the light of our last session, for it involves varying degrees of self-disapproval and polarities of thought, so that the contradictions occurred in your experience—though there were more, of course, in basic terms.

You felt you could not merge the separate groups of attributes because they were diametrically opposed in your minds. Instead, of course, there are gradations of behavior, and patterns or rhythms in your lives that would naturally flow one into the other, released from the artificial polarities. The polarities are artificial, but there is no doubt that in your society and times the exterior-tuned consciousness is the most paramount. It, of course, by its nature, is not given to introspection, so it does not question its stance as deeply. So some of this disapproval has to do with your own attitudes about the attitudes of others as they view your lives.

You find yourselves landowners somewhat. You see others shoveling their walks themselves. You disapprove of yourself for not doing so. You feel you could not do so—that you are not physically that vigorous (as I told Jane today). This is symbolic of course of your attitudes. For you feel that the life-styles are completely different, and polarized.

Physically, for example, you are in much better physical condition than Joe Bumbalo, but he is a prime example, to you, of the exteriorized consciousness—and while on the one hand you envy his shoveling the walk, you are to some degree underneath all that, somewhat contemptuous—somewhat, now; I do not want to speak too strongly, but simply help you become aware of some feelings you might have submerged because you think they are not nice.

(In addition. Prentice-Hall will send us additional copies of Seven, if they have any left. Larry Davidson called from San Francisco, during which he agreed to ship us some copies from the bookstore where he works. This the day or so after I’d had the idea of calling him to ask him to do this.

By nature, leaders are not so much at odds with their world as they are ahead of it. The Bumbalos, for example, envy you, as do the Gallaghers, but they are afraid of subjective reality. They have taught their consciousnesses to conform.

These ideas, with the last session, have to do with Ruburt’s partitioning of his spontaneity, for he also felt that you had to choose one way or the other, and that to protect your subjective freedom you had to inhibit the externally oriented spontaneity that was sanctioned by most of the society, because you could not do both. This is, again—and to some extent—on both your parts, black-and-white thinking.

You have fallen for the same conventionalized beliefs that they have, only you chose the subjective side. They were so afraid of subjective thought that they ran willy-nilly in the other direction, and they envy your choice—again, to some degree. In summer, you think you should do the lawn. You feel that conflicts with your subjective interests, and that the two are not compatible. You see Joe frantically mow his lawn. You are contemptuous—somewhat—and envious at the same time. The same applies to the snow, so you disapprove of yourself whether you have the grass or the snow taken care of—or whether you try to do it yourself.

(10:49.) Give us a moment.... Ruburt has had excellent results with Emir, and you should rejoice. You do, yet you think at what expense did Emir come—what restrictions of physical activity—and had you been somewhat different, would it all have been necessary?

All of this is connected with the chest difficulties. The food is not basically related, except as it reflects other issues (as I told Jane this afternoon). Those are relatively shallow, but do operate—that certain foods are good for the body and others are not—that heart disease is connected with cholesterol and dairy products, while skim milk is innocent. The chest difficulty reminds you of heart trouble, and you react negatively then to whole milk.

Give us a moment.... I do not want anything to impede this not new important work of progress. Now, walking would not be particularly constructive for you. The ommm exercises, or simply some quiet yoga breathing exercises, would however, and either would relieve the feelings in the chest considerably on the physical level.

Do you have questions?